Today hypertension affects approximately one billion people worldwide and is projected to increase to 1.38 billion people by 2019. Hypertension is a condition that is regarded as a risk factor that progresses heart diseases and ultimately causes adverse cardiac symptoms.
Blood pressure control can often be achieved by antihypertensive therapy with one or more drugs. However, despite the prescription of the highest dose of antihypertensive drugs, such as angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) (e.g., olmesartan at 40 mg/day), only about 50% of subjects achieve target blood pressure reduction. The variance in effective treatment of hypertension by antihypertensive drug therapy can be due to a subject's compliance with the administration regimen. Non-compliance will oftentimes lead to the inability of a subject to achieve target blood pressure reduction. Furthermore, the literature suggests that resistant hypertension is a result of non-compliance. Therefore, not surprisingly, the failure of a subject to comply with prescribed antihypertensive drug administration regimen leads to ineffective blood pressure reduction and overall ineffectiveness of treatment.
Despite advances in the development of antihypertensive drugs, their formulations, and methods for their administration, a need exists to further improve the clinical effectiveness of the administration of antihypertensive drugs, particularly to address non-compliance. The present disclosure seeks to fulfill this need and provides further related advantages.